Romain Grosjean continued to struggle during the United States Grand Prix weekend, but the Frenchman at least made it through to Q2 on Saturday, although he was lucky not to crash after coming across a slow-running Lance Stroll whilst on his first quick lap.
The Haas F1 Team has not enjoyed their second home Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas so far, and Grosjean will start twelfth on the grid thanks to grid penalties for Max Verstappen and Stoffel Vandoorne, but after taking evading action around Stroll early in Q1, he was lucky not to end his session there and then.
Grosjean feels the struggles the team have generally been having with their VF17 this weekend seem to be tyre-related, and he hopes things can improve on Sunday so he can bring the team some points at home.
“It’s been a tough weekend up to qualifying,” said Grosjean. “I hadn’t run any Ultrasofts before qualifying. Yesterday we broke a part on a quali run, and today I spun in FP3 before I could try them.
“The incident with Lance Stroll was unexpected, and pretty close. I was lucky not to spin on the grass, which would’ve been a disaster. It would’ve been the end of qualifying.
“We went through to Q2, which was good as it was the maximum we had in the car. We pushed really hard and closed the gap from seven tenths to two tenths to the guys in front, but we still haven’t really been performing well this weekend.
“I think it’s more tyre related, and that’s where we’ve got such a strong swing of performance. We need to get on top of that. Hopefully, we can give the fans something special for tomorrow.”
